Not what it seems
by Floraflower
Summary: At fiftheen, Alex struggels with a human-trade-organisation he's been sendt out to track down, when he runs into someone he hadn't expected to see again. Now, he'll be seeing a lot of them. With K-Unit. Multishot.
1. Chapter 1

This is extremly short. It's a tryout, and I don't know how often I'll be abel to update. And if I continue, I'll probably use Amitai's version of the K-Unit. If I'm allowed.

Disclaimer: Don't own.

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Prologe – Recognition

It was twelve o'clock. The sun was burning mercilessly, causing imense heat in the quiet town of Ronda, situated at the south end of Spain. The citisents of Ronda were doing as they always were at that time of day – having their siesta, and that explained the silence and feeling of being in a ghost-town the fiftheen year old brite had as he ran.

Ronda was situated on both sides of a cliff, held together seemingly only by an old stone bridge, fittingly called Puente Nueve -or new bridge, as it was built in the 1700th century.

Alex Rider didn't know this. Alex Rider didn't really know where he was actually, he had only seen the sign «Málaga 62 miles» and the way it pointed. He needed to get to Málaga as that was the only place he had contacts he could trust with his information.

Now the birte wasn't going to run 62 miles, he was already exausted, the heat would have killed him, and he was definitly not stupid. No, Alex Rider was looking for a car he could steal. And fast, seeing as he wanted to alert M16 of his findings before the human-trade organisation he had spied on sent another trailerload of marooccans up to ...wherever he was now. He wouldn't want anymore people being tortured through that ride if he could help it.

Alex was at the beginning of the bridge when he heard gunshots somewhere to the right, and instinctly dove to the left, over the side of the fence set up to keep people on the right side. They couldn't have found out about him now, there was no way they could. He had lost the headcloth that hid his blond hair, so they wouldn't mistake him for belonging to them again.

He landed akwardly on one leg on some rocks and dry grass on the other side of the fence, and had to fight to keep himself standing. He looked up fast to see if anyone had seen him jump over, and as he relaxed when he realised he was unnoctied, he lowered this eyes. And froze as he noticed three things at once.

One. He was standing very very close the edge of a cannyon. The name of the cannyon was El Tajo, but Alex didn't know and wouldn't care. He only cared about the fact that about 3 meters from where he stood, the rocks and dry grass suddenly ended and continued about 100 meters below. Well, that's what he got from jumping of bridges.

Two. Not more then five meters in front of him, following the stonewall of the bridge, was at least five spanishlooking men, holding guns. The men had looked up when he came, but the guns were (for a nice change) not pointed to Alex, but to eight men in black between them, men whose hands where bound.

After realising this, Alex made his most shocking discovery yet, as he recongnised not only one, but three of the eight black men.

«Cub?» Came the suprised outburst of one of the bound, black men.

Alex watched with dread as recognision hit not only the three he thought he knew, but at least two of the other prisoners and one guard. The guard quickly pointed his gun at Alex and smirked.

«If you would please come with me.»

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A/N: As you can see it was just a teaser, I don't speak english and it isn't betaed. I still wanna know what you think=)


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Don't own and all.

Love declaration goes out to:** ObsessivelyOdd, Amitai, Scorpia710, Crowlows19, Timon x3**. Because I love their AR stories, but I can't seem to click that REVIEW-button often enough. And **Wild Child.571 x**, 'cause her latest update made me realize I wanna be cool and update as well. (I love that story as well).

* * *

Oh, shoot. That was so not planned.

One thing was the three bound soldiers he knew he had shared a bunk with for ten days, a little more than one year ago, starring at him with surprised looks on their faces. That – he could deal with. Worse was Klaus, the German rent-soldier who he had trained with for a longer period of time. Training to become an assassin, working for Scorpia.

Why the heck would Scorpia even be here? They surely didn't have anything to do with the mission Alex was working on. The sloppy way the human-smuggling was handled, with so many loopholes and beginner-mistakes, made it clear to Alex that it was nothing like with his Snakehead-mission and the way he had been handled there.

Well. Whatever this was, he had no way of outrunning a gun pointed at him, and he had far to much experience with guns to have a go anyway. They hurt as hell.

So giving up, his breath still caught in his throat from running, Alex raised his hands to indicate that there was no need for any shooting going this way.

* * *

They were brought to the underside of the bridge, through a tiny door carved out in the stone and into the canyon side. The walk was quiet, except for the steady rhythm of feet, nobody talked at all. Alex was in the middle of the line, but with Klaus' gun pressed into his back. The German assassin was clearly not taking any chances with him, and Alex had to wonder as to how much word of his betrayal had reached the lower ranks within Scorpia. He had hoped that the board would find it too embarrassing to say anything, but that clearly wasn't the case, as he was held back when K-unit and the other prisoners where pushed into an old fashioned cell.

As the cell-door closed between them, Alex was aware of the guards spreading out around him, surrounding him so he stood with his back against the other prisoners. Klaus stepped in front of him, before rising his voice to speak for the second time since Alex first saw him.

"I know you're wondering why I didn't just kill him when I first saw him," he said in English with no trace of accent at all, while moving so close to Alex that he was in his personal space. "But you'll understand once he states his name." Alex realized he was talking to the other guards, and quickly peeked a look around him to watch their reactions. They were watching with anticipation, clearly with no clue of whom or what he was.

He was turning back to Klaus as the smack hit the right side of his face, and he stumbled back into the cell door. The smack had come with a flat hand, but the force behind it made Alex taste blood as he straightened up.

"Tell them your name." Klaus hissed, and Alex really did try to fight the reply on the tip of his tongue. Too late though.

"They call me Bond..." was all he got out before he was sucker-punched and sank to his knees clutching his stomach.

"Leave him alone! He's just a kid!" One of the prisoners protested, and Alex had time to reprimand himself. To his credit, it really wouldn't have been good to let the guards know his name, and he probably would get more of a beating if he delivered it. But they would get it anyway, Klaus obviously knew, and he would tell if Alex didn't. Drawing his breath, Alex hurried up so there wouldn't be any more hits.

"Alex Rider."

His voice was slightly croaked, but the guards had apparently understood what he said as there broke out mumbling between them. Then one of them stepped up to him, and with a nod from Klaus, kicked him in the side, bruising up his rib. With a startled yelp, Alex recovered form the kick he had not been prepared for, grabbed the guards leg, and pulled him till he fell to the ground. Getting shaking to his feet, he prepared for the rest of the guards circling in on him.

"Enough" Klaus' voice cut through the ring around him, and Alex stood highly tense awaiting the next order. He would not go down without a fight, that was for sure. Especially not with K-unit watching him. Klaus stepped forward and reached a hand up to touch Alex' collarbone while the teen stood tense awaiting whatever would happen next. The hand traced the collarbone over to the left side of his chest, lingering over his heart for a moment.

"We'll talk with him later." Klaus said as he pressed hard with two fingers in the center of the bullet-wound Scorpia had given him. White, hot pain flashed behind Alex' eyes, before he collapsed on the stone floor.

* * *

Alex's body was dragged into the cell while a guard had his gun pointed at the prisoners, daring them to move. Nobody did and when they where left alone, an uncomfortable silence fell over the prisoners, before Snake finally moved up to check how Cub was doing.

When he moved, the tension broke, and the SAS-teams resident shifted around.

"Who is he? You guys seemed to know him" Shark asked nodding at K-unit. They didn't answer though, Panter form E-unit did.

"He was called Cub. Trained with K-unit over a year ago, for like ten days. Wouldn't have recognized him if it wasn't for the fact that a kid training at an SAS camp is highly unusual. " He said, while watching Snake study the unconscious kid. "Is he okay?".

"I guess so. I don't know what knocked him out, but he seems to be breathing just fine." Snake said as he got up.

"What the hell is he doing here, anyway? Quite the coincidence with him jumping over the bridge just as we were led in here." Eagle said to no one in particular.

"You mean he was sent to help us out?" Shark raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know Cub like we do. He did frighteningly good for being a new recruit back at camp. And being a kid, non the less." Eagle said stubbornly.

"Yes, but sending him in all alone? Why do that with a kid? I doubt Cub does those kinds of things, he was at Brecon Beacons for 10 days. You don't do work for MI6 after training for 10 days, idiot." Wolf grumbled from a dark corner of the cell, the shadows marking his glaring face so it looked even more scary than usual. Wolf was glaring at Alex, as if it was all the teenagers fault his unit had been captured and led here. Knowing Wolf, he probably thought it was.

Almost as if the boy had noticed the glare from his unit leader, he shifted his head ever so slightly and blinked three times before keeping his eyes open. Taking in his surroundings and its inhabitants first, Alex moved to get up into a standing position. He did not like laying totally unguarded on the ground, with so many possible attackers all around. Swaying slightly, he walked over to the cell door and checked it for possible weak points where he could aim a kick. He didn't find one.

"Are you here to get us out?" Alex turned to where the voice had come from. Eagle was looking at him with anticipation in his eyes.

"No." The boy answered quietly, his voice cracking up . It was probably meant to be sarcastic.

"See, Eagle? Besides, I hope you don't think MI6 is stupid enough to send Cub in when it's obvious Scorpia recognize him from somewhere." Wolf snorted from his dark corner. "Why did they do that, anyway? Realized your dad is rich and important, and that they could use you to get a ransom? He must be quite high up, to be able to send you to the SAS to teach you manners."

Alex didn't answer that, although he would have wanted to point out that if there was one thing he did NOT learn at Brecon Beacons, it was manners.

After he had done a sweep on the rest of the room without finding anything remotely of interest, he sat down with his back to a wall and leaned his head on it for support. He was dead tired, but couldn't really sleep when he was as thirsty as he was. Instead, he started going through all the details of his latest mission, willing himself to not forget anything for the report he had to get across to Miss Jones.

Snake eyed Alex critically as he sat with his head to the wall. When checking him earlier, he had looked pale, but otherwise relaxed. Now, Snake saw the slightly purple bags under the kids eyes, the emotionless mask he seemed to be wearing, tense but carefully neutral, and the red skin on the right side of his face, which was already starting to turn a shade of blue.

"How are you feeling?" Snake asked at last, a little unsettled with what he had observed.

Alex blinked once and turned his head slightly so he was facing Snake: "Fine." He said, his voice breaking halfway into the word. He then frowned slightly before adding: "I don't suppose any of you have some water?"

There was some sound of rustling as the soldiers checked their bodies for a hidden bottle of water. Non came up.

"If you aren't here to "save" us, then why are you here?" One of the soldiers Alex couldn't name asked after a while, laying the question in a mocking tone.

The teenager merely shrugged, unsure of if his missions were classified to the SAS or not.

"He asked you a bloody question. He is above you in rank, as he is a unit leader like me, so you better answer it. You don't fucking shrug to someone of a higher rank." Wolf sneered from his corner, his voice dripping with warning of what would happen if he didn't answer.

"I'm on another mission, _Sir. _Didn't expect to run into Scorpia on my way." Alex' voice was flat and raspy with lack of water. He really needed some water soon, he had no idea how long he had been inside the trailer, but it must have been at least two days without anything to eat or drink and now he felt slightly disorientated.

"What kind of mission?" The same man that had asked him the first question said.

"Human smuggling from Morocco."

"You think we're gonna believe that? You going on a mission? No one would authorizer that, double O Nothing." Wold sneered.

Alex looked at him, wondering what the mans problem was. He would have thought they were on a slightly more friendly page, both after the whole plane-incident and Wolf getting shot for him at Point Blanc. Or maybe that was the problem. On the other hand, Alex guessed he couldn't really expect the man to be friendly. He couldn't really expect that of anyone anymore, but perhaps especially Wolf.

"So it is really true that you are an agent? How many missions have you been to" Eagle asked, ignoring what Wolf had said earlier. "I mean, Ben told about meeting you in Thailand, and Wolf worked as a backup for you in France, but have you had more than those two?"

"What do you mean "Ben met him in Thailand?" He never said anything like that to me." Wolf snapped at Eagle.

"He didn't say that to Eagle either, but he told me when I asked how he got shot in the arm. Apparently the bullet was meant for Cub. I told Eagle when we were driving back from a leave." Snake said patiently, trying not to make Wolf attack. He was about to say more when he saw the left side of Cub's mouth twitch.

"You must really love me, two out of five taking bullets for me." Cub said in a monotone and raspy voice.

"Shut up. You have no idea how much a bullet wound hurts, you should be forever grateful to both of us." Wolf said.

"I do and I am." Alex replied a bit sluggishly.

"You've been shot? Where? When?" Eagle searched Alex, eagerly trying to locate a scar or something giving away where he had been shot.

Alex already regretted the last bit of information he had given, knowing he should have kept his mouth shut and offer as little as possible. There were bound to be more questions now, and he really couldn't keep his will to hold his eyes open any longer.

"You sure you don't have any water?" He mumbled as his eyes slid close and he lost consciousness once more.

* * *

A/N:

1)Okay, rubbish ending, sorry. I wanted to update before I leave, so it's badly done and rushed.

2) I have a question: If I want to "edit" this chapter after it's posted, will I be able to do that without noting anyone who has the story up for alert that there has been posted "another" chapter?

3) Sorry for the loong wait and all. My computer has lived it's own life for a while now. I had the chapter halfway finished about two months ago, but then every single document on my computer got erased for no apparent reason. I was furious. Yesterday, it suddenly all showed up again, like it had never been gone. I took it as a hint to update this story..

4) And I WILL ask a beta to edit it for me. It's just so embaressing when I don't know how often I'll update..


	3. Chapter 3

_I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry._

_Thank you so much to everyone that has reviewed_. _Everytime I got one I managed to write at least two more words of this hateful chapter. It really meant a lot to me! Special thank's to **ObsessivelyOdd** for an official kick in the butt._

**Disclaimer: **_Don't own._

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The next time he woke, the thirst hadn't changed and the pounding in his chest was still quite annoying. Luckily someone seemed to have brought him a cup of stale-tasting water and he was roughly helped to support his head as he tried to swallow it down. Realizing what he was doing halfway through the second mouthful, Alex coughed out, spilling the rest of the cup on his shirt as he got his bearings back. He realized that he wasn't in the cell with the SAS soldiers anymore, and although he was thankful non of the soldiers had witnessed his disgraceful drinking, being separated from the group could not be good.

Sitting upright on a hard chair, hands bound on his back, Alex sat facing a mahogany-colored desk, surrounded by high and expensive-looking bookshelves. As he turned around on his chair, he realized he was sitting in a office of some sorts. Directly behind the desk was a window with what looked like a supreme view of the canyon all around. The lack of light shining through the window told Alex it was well past midnight.

"I always did wonder why they let you train with us. It's not like you where that good at anything." Alex turned to the voice, not surprised to find Klaus standing at his left side, studying him intently. "I mean the age-thing has obviously been working for you, but apart from that you're nothing fancy. You didn't do anything extraordinarily while training with us at all, did you?"

What was he supposed to answer that with, Alex wondered. He most certainly didn't think he'd done anything special. He looked back up at Klaus just as he was backhanded across the face, only being kept up by the chair he was tied to.

"It just angers me, you know? How she could have picked you. Neil is one thing. But why you?" Klaus' voice had risen and he placed himself directly in front of the chair. Alex blinked a few times to focus again and raised an eyebrow.

"What are you on about? I hardly talked to you more than once, there's no reason to bear a grudge." He said in an annoyed tone.

"I'm fucking talking about Ms. Rothman, that's what! I'd been on Malagosto for two hole months when you came along, and then you where there for this tiny bit of time and she fucking brings you on her mission instead of me! I know Niles was better than me so of course she brought him. But you? The little fucking brat who popped out of nowhere? That spot was supposed to be mine. If it'd been mine, the mission would have succeeded and she would have seen just how good I was!"

Klaus had worked himself up so much Alex could feel the spit from the yelling spray his face nicely. It should have worked as a cold shower to remind him where he was and stop him from saying what he did. But he was tired, thirsty, his stomach hurt and frankly – he just couldn't let it slide.

"You were in love with Julia Rothman." He stated with a dead voice. Then he cracked a smirk.

Maybe he'd have gotten away with the statement alone, Alex wondered as he was gutted hard with a fist twice. But combined with the smirk it had obviously become to much. As he struggled to draw his breath, Klaus untied his hands and pushed him to the floor, leaving him in an awkward position on all four. Then again – he thought, he'd probably meant to do this all along. His shirt was grabbed and ripped of him and if he hadn't felt so bloody weak in all his limbs, he would surely have put up more of a fight. Now, he just sat there as something made a swirling sound through the air and made contact with his back in the next second.

Alex had been wipped on a mission once before and so he tried to tell himself it couldn't be worse than it had been. But that would be lying through his teeth. The strokes from the cane - it had to be a cane by the way he was forced lower down on the floor with each hit – burned across his back. And they came so often he didn't have any time to catch his breath. The last time he'd been wipped, it had been to make a point from a "teacher" during an undercover mission as a cult-member. It had hurt and been humiliating, but he had easily placed himself elsewhere in his mind, pretending it didn't happen when it did. He had no such escape here. And besides. This wasn't wipping. It was beating with a cane, and he literary felt his ribs bend under the pressure inflicted upon them.

* * *

One would think that being forced together in a tiny, old fashioned cell would make you more at ease with the people around you, but for the SAS this was not the case. When Alex had passed out or fallen to sleep or whatever it was he had done, nobody saw the reason to break the silence again. Eagle had shifted a little uncomfortably and Shark had glanced to Wolf to see if he would do anything, but when it became apparent that he wouldn't, both units stopped looking.

And so none of them had known quite what to do when three men came in and dragged Alex out between them. Panter had protested briefly, asking what they wanted with the boy, but none of the men answered, and they _did_ have guns.

"What do think they want with him?" Panter asked Snake as Alex and the guards disappeared along the hall.

"I really don't know him more than you do, Panter. It was only ten days he stayed with us, and we didn't actually bond much." Snake answered tiredly.

"I can definitely see Wolf sit down with the kid and trade family history, can't you guys?" Lion, another member of E-Unit smiled.

"I'm still wondering what they wanted with him though." Panter stated.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Wolf growled from his corner, "they're probably gonna take a picture to blackmail his family with or something. They knew who he was, after all."

"You really think that was the case, Wolf? What then about France and Thailand?" Eagle pointed out.

"I don't know about that, Eagle, but I do know you've put together some fancy super boy in you head, and Cub just isn't it. His family will probably pay good money to ensure that not a hair is bent on his head." Wolf said, making it clear that the subject was closed.

* * *

"What the fuck?"

Shark was the first one to see what the guards dragged between them, and his angry exclaim made the rest look up at the group outside the cell.

Cub looked bad, being dragged shirtless between two guards, obviously unconscious. The blood dripping from the pale back made it look even more grotesque. Probably worse than it was, Wolf reflected as he noticed the blood was thankfully light red, meaning that the cuts or whatever it was hadn't run that deep.

"Sit down or I will shoot you," one of the guards warned as both Shark and Panter had risen at the sight of the teen. They slowly lowered themselves to the ground again, as the man who had first recognized Cub and was obviously the leader of capturers, unlocked the cell door with his keys and stepped aside for the two men holding Cub.

Cub was dragged into the cell and dumped on the floor. The rough treatment sent a moan from the boy as he started to wake up. The leader, Wolf had heard the others call him Klaus, knelt down in front of the boy and roughly pushed him over on his back, with the bleeding wounds pressing into the ground. Wolf felt faintly sick with the way Klaus acted, but realized that showing his discomfort would only make it worse. So instead of reacting, he watch as the German man got out a bottle of water.

"Drink this," Klaus whispered as he pushed the bottle between Cubs' lips, tilting it so the liquid inside made it's way into his mouth. "I know you are thirsty." Cub swallowed halfway down before he coughed and spit it out again.

"Now, we shall have non of that, Alex. Try again." Klaus grabbed the teens hair and forced the bottle between his lips once more. Cub blinked in confusion, obviously not completely sure what was happening, but this time he swallowed two mouthfuls before he started coughing, and pushed at the kidnapper to leave him alone. The man seemed pleased with the amount of drink he had forced on the boy and left the cell, the men who'd dragged Cub trailing out behind him. The door clicked shut behind them.

"Cub, can you hear me?" Panter had moved over to Alex as soon as the guards disappeared. He hovered awkwardly above him as the teenager tried to force himself up in a seated position, failing and trying again.

"Lie still, will you!" Eagle said at last, the irritation in his voice obvious.

"Lay of him, Eagle," Shark bit back, then towards the boy, "Cub, is there anything we can do for you?".

"I'm just saying that he shouldn't move around when he's lost so much blood." Eagle still sounded irritated.

"He hasn't lost that much blood, the wounds aren't that deep." Panter had at last knelt beside Alex, examining the bloody back as he spoke.

"Why is he so weak then?" The last member of E-unit, Deer, asked.

"I think the water was a little poisonous. " Alex said in a dead voice, if not a little hoarse.

"Then why the hell did you drink it?" Eagle demanded, ignoring Shark's warning look.

"I was thirsty." Alex let some of his annoyance shine through the answer. It wasn't like he'd had much of a choice. Klaus had been quite bent on making him drink. It was that and a memory of the German as the best poison-student at Malagosto that had tipped Alex of.

"Of course, you where thirsty. I definitely see why you think of the baby as some super-kid, Eagle. He's obviously super-clever." Wolf sneered from his corner.

"Jeeze, what the fuck is wrong with you guys? Just leave him alone and let's focus on how to get out of here." Panter exclaimed, looking at Eagle and Wolf especially, who both looked down a little sheepishly.

"The only way to get out is to try an ambush the next time they open the door. But they've got guns and we don't so I don't really fancy that option." Snake reasoned, looking at the other soldiers for more ideas.

Lion shrugged and Eagle shook his head. Alex opened his mouth and said:

"You can - "

"Great, Superkid got an idea everybody! What shall it be? There's no chimney for you to climb up through here, Cub." Wolf cut him off.

"I was going to suggest using the key, but perhaps that's to adventures for you, Wolf?" Alex answered, to tired to make is voice sarcastic.

* * *

Wolf didn't like this at all. They had managed to sneak out of the cell - the key had certainly helped, and where currently breathing fresh air again for the first time in about sixteen hours. It wasn't even particularly long they had been held captured, but the sense of freedom as they all ran was still refreshing. No, that wasn't what Wolf didn't like. It was the fact that their "savior", the teenager that was the only one physically hurt from the experience, was still back in the cell alone.

The kid had had to point out himself that he couldn't possibly sneak out with them, climb the narrow track up the canyon and get away from their captors. To fucking mature for his own good.

They had of course tried arguing. Shark flat out refused to leave without him. Panter said they would switch around carrying him. Cub had sneered at them, told them to do their fucking job and think for a moment. And Wolf knew the kid was right, that bugged him even more. Of course they couldn't stay here. They could not carry him – Cub might be little, but the track was narrow and they simply didn't have the time to be slowed down like that. And Wolf had to be the bad guy, landing the decision to leave him behind.

Panter had blown up, started reciting SAS' own ethic rules about not leaving civilians in danger and vowed to drag him before the ethics committee when they escaped.

Wolf had never before believed Cub to be anything other than a civilian. The thought had been to absurd, to surreal to be worth any time thinking. But when the kid had round on Panter in that cell, hissing that a civilian was the least he was, that he was less of a civilian than Panter would ever be and that if they didn't get out of the cell, he himself would pull Panter before the military court for refusing to complete an assigned mission, Wolf couldn't deny it. The kid was a fully fledged agent, matured way beyond his age, no matter how wrong it was. He allowed a quick look behind himself, meeting the eyes of the other running soldiers and knew that they had all come to the same conclusion. When they got Cub out – and they would get him out and he would be alive – they would start asking questions about this, as loud and noisy as possible.

* * *

_AN: For apologises about being grotesquely late, see the top. Now for the chapter: I don't like it. I've used such a long time plotting in word for word that it stopped making sense to me at some point. A little later I realized that I couldn't bring the story the way I intended, and had to change it._

_There WILL be a sequal. I always had a dream where this story was the first meeting, and then it intended to go on and on in other stories. So it's not DONE yet. But maybe this part is. 'Cause then things can eventually start to make more sense.  
_

_Please tell me what you think of this! I don't like it, so really, I won't be offended if you don't either, but I'd like to hear it=) So PLEASE REVIEW=)  
_


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